But how does Savulescu know that genetic intervention will improve individual morality? To Savulescu, the answers are simple: eliminate traits connected to–for instance–alcoholism, bad temper, and violence, and select for traits connected to altruism and cooperation. But his views may betray an unwitting commitment to genetic determinism.

From a recent article: “Parents, he argues, have a responsibility to society to select for ‘ethically better children,’ likening these screening [sic] for the ones already in place for Down’s syndrome and cystic fibrosis.”